(he/him) is a writer and actor. He was a Michael Grandage Company Futures bursary winner in 2021. His most recent work includes Kabul Goes Pop (Brixton House / Hightide / Colchester Mercury – UK Tour) and The P Word (Bush Theatre). He created Sholay on the Big Screen supported by The Bush and I Don’t Know What To Do at the Vault Festival 2020 (Evening Standard Pick of the Fest). His short film Lost Paradise was produced by UK Film Council and he has contributed material for BBC Radio 4’s “Sketchtopia” and “Newsjack” and BBC3’s “Famalam.” As an actor his credits include Cruella, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and “The Great.”

Will Arbery is a playwright from Texas + Wyoming + seven sisters. His play Heroes of the Fourth Turning was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and the winner of an OBIE for Playwriting, the Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, the John Gassner Playwriting Award, and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. He's the recipient of a Whiting Award for Drama. Other plays: Plano (Clubbed Thumb), Evanston Salt Costs Climbing (New Neighborhood), and Wheelchair (3 Hole Press). Commissions: Playwrights Horizons, Audible, MTC. He’s a member/alum of New Dramatists, The Working Farm at SPACE on Ryder Farm, Page 73’s Interstate 73, Colt Coeur, Youngblood, and Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writers Group. New plays: Corsicana (developed at Playwrights Horizons/Ojai), and You Hateful Things (developed at The Public/NYTW/SPACE on Ryder Farm). Film/TV: HBO, A24, BBC Films. willarbery.com

A screenwriter and playwright from the Pacific Northwest. His work has been produced around the country, from Aspen to New York. He was the recipient of the Gary Garrison Prize for playwriting at the American College Theater Festival in Washington D.C.; a selected writer for Theater Masters’ Palm Beach Developmental Workshop Series; and a Kennedy Center Fellow at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference. His original pilot, The Roadside, won the Gold Prize in the 2015 PAGE International Screenwriting Competition. He holds a BFA in Film and Television Production from the Savannah College of Art & Design, and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He currently lives in Los Angeles.

Christopher Chen is a San Francisco native whose plays include: THE HEADLANDS (Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3), PASSAGE (The Wilma Theater, Soho Rep), THE LATE WEDDING (Crowded Fire Theater) and CAUGHT (InterAct Theatre, The Play Company), which won an OBIE Award for Playwriting and was a NY Times Critics Pick. Additional honors include: USA Fellow; Steinberg Award; Lanford Wilson Award; Sundance Institute/Time Warner Foundation Fellowship for theater; Paula Vogel Playwriting Award; and the inaugural Ollie Award. He is currently under commission at various regional and NY theaters, including Cutting Ball Theater, Playwrights Horizons and Portland Center Stage. Chen also has an overall deal at Amazon TV.

Vichet Chum is a Cambodian-American playwright and theater maker, originally from Dallas, Texas and now living in New York City. His plays have been workshopped at Steppenwolf Theatre, the Magic Theater, the Alley Theatre, the UCROSS Foundation, Fault Line Theatre, Crowded Outlet, Second Generation Productions, Weston Playhouse, Cleveland Public Theatre, All For One Theater, Amios, Florida State University, Merrimack Repertory Theatre and the New Harmony Project. He received the 2018-19 Princess Grace Award in Playwriting with New Dramatists and is a current board member for the New Harmony Project. This season, Vichet is a part of the 2019-20 Resident Working Farm Group at Space on Ryder Farm, the 2020 Interstate 73 Writer's Group at Page 73 and the 2020 Ars Nova Play Group. His play High School Play: A Nostalgia Fest will have its world premiere as a co-production at Dallas Theater Center and the Alley Theatre in 2021. He is a proud graduate of the University of Evansville (BFA) and Brown University/Trinity Repertory Company (MFA). He’s represented by Beth Blickers at APA. vichetchum.com

London based playwright who was the winner of the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright 2013 and a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award 2018. Her plays include Out of Love (Paines Plough), Pilgrims (HighTide), Image of an Unknown Young Woman (The Gate) and a new version of Ibsen's The Lady From The Sea for the Donmar Warehouse, directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah. She is currently working on a musical adaptation of a major children's novel for the stage.

A Chicago playwright and educator whose plays include Failure: A Love Story; Le Switch; The Homosexuals; The Burn; Dr.Seuss’s The Sneetches, the Musical  (with composer David Mallamud);Spamtown, USA; The Gentleman Caller; Charm; Miss Marx: Or The Involuntary Side Effect of Livingand The Happiest Place on Earth. Philip has won some awards and not won some others. He’s taught playwriting at his alma mater, Loyola University Chicago, Northwestern University, Victory Gardens Theater and the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis. Many of Philip’s plays, including his scripts for young performers, are available through Dramatists Play Service, Playscripts, Inc. and Dramatic Publishing. He is currently working on an American English translaptation of Michel Tremblay’s Messe Solennelle Pour Une Pleine Lune D'été.

(she/her) is an Eritrean and Ethiopian-American playwright and screenwriter who crafts stories about and for the African diaspora. For the screen, she is currently a staff writer for the BET+ series “First Wives Club.” She wrote the short film, Diner, for the 2021 Disney Discovers showcase, collaborating with the next wave of up-and-coming actors and directors in New York and Los Angeles. She has assisted multiple television series in both the writers room and on set, including FOX’s “Filthy Rich,” NBC’s “This Is Us,” and Amazon’s “Harlem.” For the stage, her short play Pining, a tragicomedy that explores the thrills and shortcomings of attraction, premiered at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and was published by Samuel French in 2019.

Noah Diaz is a playwright and television writer from the Iowa/Nebraska border. His plays have been developed with La Jolla Playhouse, Baltimore Center Stage, The Playwrights Realm, First Floor Theater, The Sol Project, Two River Theater, Howlround Latinx Theater Commons, Seven Devils New Play Foundry, and WildWind Performance Lab. He is a recipient of the ASCAP Cole Porter Prize for Excellence in Playwriting, a five-time recipient of playwriting awards from the Kennedy Center, and is currently under commission from La Jolla Playhouse, Great Plains Theatre Conference, Manhattan Theatre Club/Sloan, Baltimore Center Stage, and Audible/Amazon Studios. MFA: Yale School of Drama.

Mathilde Dratwa’s plays include Milk and Gall, which was produced at Theatre503 in London in 2021, and A Play about David Mamet Writing a Play about Harvey Weinstein. Her work has been developed and presented by the Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, Rattlestick, LAByrinth Theater Company, the Great Plains Theater Conference, the Playwrights' Center, and in London at the Young Vic. Mathilde is a member of Dorset Theater Festival's Women Artists Writing Group, a member of the Orchard Project's Greenhouse and a two-time Pulitzer Center grant recipient. Recently, she was a Dramatist Guild Foundation Playwriting Fellow, a member of New York Foundation for the Arts' Immigrant Artist Program and a co-leader of the FilmShop collective. She is also the co-founder of Moms-in-Film, which, among other things, provided free childcare to filmmaker-parents at SXSW and Sundance.

(she/her) is a playwright originally from Dallas, TX, and currently based in Brooklyn, NY. She is the recipient of the 2020 Leah Ryan Fund for Emerging Women Writers, and the recipient of the 2018 Kennedy Center Paula Vogel Play Prize. Tyler is also a member of the 2020 Page 73 writers group Interstate 73. Her plays include ,i>Mingus (2020 Bay Area Playwrights Festival, 2019 Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Play Conference Finalist), Maya and Rivers (2020 Fire This Time Festival), B*TCH (Development: Page 73’s Interstate 73, Joust Theatre Company), and Twentyeight (The Vortex, Austin, TX). Tyler holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU Tisch, and a BA in African and African Diaspora Studies from UT Austin. Tyler hopes to create worlds, in her writing, where black women live beyond the basic means of survival and have the audacity to be autonomous.

Amy Evans is a writer based in Brooklyn, New York. Her plays include The Champion(TheatreSquared), Achidi J’s Final Hours (Finborough Theatre UK), Many Men’s Wife(Tricycle Theatre), The Next Question (HB Playwrights Foundation), The Big Nickel(Soho Theatre UK), The Most Unsatisfied Town (English Theatre Berlin International Performing Arts Center), and English-Free Zone (Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture). A recipient of a 2019 NYFA/NYSCA Fellowship in Playwriting and the 2020 Thornwillow Patrons’ Prize, Amy is an alumna of Hedgebrook Women Writers’Residency, BRICLab Performing Arts Residency (2008 and 2015), 651 Arts’ Artist Development Initiative, Berlin Kulturlabor Institute for Cultural Inquiry, Willapa Bay AiR Artists’ Residency, Quest University Writers’ Conference, and Interstate 73 Playwrights’ Group. She holds an MA in Theatre Arts from Goldsmiths College at the University of London. Headshot by Daniela Incoronato. www.scriptingrage.com

A playwright from London whose first full-length play, Four Minutes Twelve Seconds premiered at Hampstead Theatre Downstairs in 2014 and was nominated for an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre. In 2017, his radio play Comment is Free won both the Imison and the Tinniswood Awards at the BBC Audio Drama Awards, which is the first time that a writer has won both awards the same year.

Berri is a London based playwright and screenwriter. A graduate of the Belgrade Theatre’s Critical Mass and the Royal Court Theatre local invitation playwriting schemes and 2014 alumni for the Orange Tree Theatre’s playwrights’ group. LARP her one-woman play which she also performed, received five-star reviews, as well as touring a range of London & regional venues, alongside making her Edinburgh Fringe Festival debut in 2019. SHADOW KINGDOMS staged at Theatre503 in 2018 went on to secure her a Channel Four Playwright Bursary award and runner up for the Mercury Playwriting Award. She was a part of the 2017 BBC Drama Room following on from her short film TITS (BBC 3). Most recently, she has been working on ITVs CORONATION STREET part of their Original Voices Initiative and in 2021 will be joining the BBC Writers Academy.

Ava Geyer is a playwright and screenwriter based in Brooklyn, NY. She's a 2023 resident of SPACE on Ryder Farm, a member of Obie-winning writers group EST/Youngblood and under commission by La Jolla Playhouse. Past honors include Theater Masters' Visionary Award (2020) and Shank Residency at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater ('19-'20). She writes about tech, economics, sex, and female consciousness. Aaron Sorkin with a feminist heart. Plays include Monster (finalist, Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition), B-Storm (pub. by Concord Theatricals; winner, National MFA Playwrights Festival), Death Cleaning (Bloodworks Reading Series '23) and Fruit Snacks ("Hopeful Decade" event, Williamsburg, BK). Ava is an Artist Advocate for Healing TREE, a mental health nonprofit dedicated to promoting trauma-focused therapy. Generally regarded as the most promising young writer to emerge from her Crown Heights apartment. MFA: UC San Diego '19. BA: Princeton University '15.

An award-winning playwright based in London who won the Nick Darke Award for her play Made for Him. Her plays have been performed in London, Italy and South Africa. In 2016, she was selected to write a play for Promised Lands, a playwriting festival based in Milan, exploring themes of migration. Her critically acclaimed play Occupied at Theatre503 was nominated for two Off West End Theatre Awards in 2014. The same year, she was honoured at HRM’s RADA ceremony at Buckingham Palace celebrating excellence in the Dramatic Arts. She also works as a script reader.

Afsaneh Gray is a playwright and screenwriter of mixed Iranian/Jewish heritage. She is the winner of the 2018 Brian Way Award and is currently on the longlist for the Women's Prize for Playwriting. Having completed the BBC Doctors Shadow Scheme, her first episode aired in January and her second is currently in production. Last year, her play THE BORDER (**** The Stage) toured schools and venues nationally with Theatre Centre. Previous credits include the critically acclaimed OCTOPUS, an anarchic comedy about what it means to be British, which premiered at the Assembly Box at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe Festival (subsequent transfer to Theatre503 and ACE-funded UK tour); and AND THE CROWD (WEPT), a verbatim opera drawn from media reports of the death of Jade Goody, which premiered as a work-in-progress showing to critical acclaim (“Both satirical and sad” The Guardian) at the Tête à Tête Opera Festival at the Riverside Studios in 2013. She has been a member of the Bush Theatre Emerging Writers' Group, the Orange Tree Writers' Collective, the Royal Court Studio Group and the Soho Young Writers' Group. Previous work has been seen at venues including the Scuola di Teatro Paolo Grassi in Milan, the Soho Theatre, the Bush Theatre and the V&A.

The most produced playwright in America in 2017 and the author of plays such as The Book of Will, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, and I and You. Gunderson’s work has been commissioned, developed and produced at companies including South Coast Repertory, Marin Theatre Company, The Kennedy Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Denver Center, San Francisco Playhouse, Berkeley Rep, TheatreWorks, and more.

A playwright and radio dramatist whose work has been heard on the BBC ("Care Inc.") and seen at The National Black Theatre (“Mondo Tragic,”) The New Black Fest and MCC Theatre (“Pornplay; or, Blessèd Are The Meek, ”) New York Theatre Workshop (“Nimpsey Pink,”) and The Lark Play Development Center (“Jackets In May”) among others. Residencies and fellowships include The Dramatist Guild Fellowship, Space At Ryder Farm, 'I Am Soul' Playwright's Residency at The National Black Theatre, LaGuardia Performing Arts Playwriting Lab, City Theatre Company, and more. MFA: University of Iowa.

Jessica Huang is a playwright based in New York, from Minnesota. Her work includes The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin (2018 Barry and Bernice Stavis Award, 2017 Kilroy’s List), Mother of Exiles (2020 Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, 2020 Paul Stephen Lim Playwriting Award, 2020 Kendeda Prize Finalist),Transmissions in Advance of the Second Great Dying, and Purple Cloud. She has commissions with Manhattan Theatre Club, TimeLine Theatre Company, Audible, Theater Masters, History Theatre, and Theater Mu. Her work has been seen or read at New York Stage and Film, The New Group, Atlantic Theater Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The Old Globe, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, The Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, The Minnesota Museum of American Art, Yellow Earth Theatre and more. She is the inaugural recipient of the 4 Seasons Residency; a 2018 MacDowell Fellow; a three-time Playwrights’ Center Fellow, and has received awards from the Sloan Foundation, the Jerome Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Board. Jessica co-founded and co-directs Other Tiger Productions, a theatrical production company with a mission to pursue multidisciplinary collaborations, intentional inclusivity and a re-examination of traditional theater practices. She has been a member of the Civilians R&D Group, Page 73's Interstate 73 and Ars Nova Play Group. She attends the Playwrights Program at Juilliard.

An acclaimed playwright raised and currently residing in Newark, New Jersey. Hutchinson holds a B.A. in Dramatic Arts from Vassar College and an M.F.A. in Playwriting from NYU. Her work has been presented at such venues as the National Black Theater and Second Stage Theater. She is a current member of New Dramatists and former staff writer for the Blue Man Group.

(they/them) is a London-based writer. In 2021, Oli was a lead artist for the Barbican x CRIPtic Showcase and the BBC’s Words First festival. A non-binary artist working across poetry, film and theatre, Oli’s work has been screened at international film festivals, published in Rattle Magazine and Bath Magg, and performed at the Barbican Centre, Edinburgh Fringe, VAULT Festival and Hay Festival. They have been a member of the Soho Theatre Writers' Lab, Roundhouse Poetry Collective and the Apples & Snakes’ Writing Room. They are also one-half of Clumsy Bodies, a trans performance duo.

A Chicago-born, New York-based playwright and lyricist. Joelle holds a B.A. in English from Columbia University and an M.F.A. in Playwriting from CUNY/Hunter. Her play TRAYF premiered at Theater J in 2018, and The Garbologists was recently workshopped at PlayPenn. She is a member of Nashville Repertory Theatre’s Ingram New Works Lab, a National New Play Network writer-in-residence at Curious Theatre, and an alumna of the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop.

Charlie Josephine is an actor represented by Hatton McEwan Penford, and a writer represented by The Agency. Their award winning theatre work includes Bitch Boxer, BLUSH and Pops. They can be found on twitter at @charlotte_j_b.

A multi-disciplinary artist of Bulgarian and Indian descent who was raised in Sweden. Kapil's plays include Love Person (Stavis Playwriting Award, 2009), the Displaced Hindu Gods Trilogy (Mixed Blood Theater and across the US and London), Orange (Mixed Blood Theatre and SCR), and Imogen Says Nothing (Yale Repertory Theatre). She is the Playwright-in-Residence at Mixed Blood Theatre, an Artistic Associate at Park Square Theatre, a Core Writer at the Playwrights’ Center, and a Resident Playwright at New Dramatists.

Paul William Kruse is a playwright, film/video maker, and teaching artist from western Wisconsin. His work flows from his queer identity, Catholic roots, and ever-evolving experience of family. He is a founding member and resident playwright of Hatch Arts Collective in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Paul often writes collaboratively, drawing from his years of experience as a videographer and documentarian. He is currently a fellow at the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is pursuing an MFA. www.paulwkruse.com

A playwright and actor born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Lázaro holds a B.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from SUNY Purchase College and an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Columbia University. Her play Tell Hector I Miss Him premiered at the Atlantic Theater Company in fall of 2017, and There's Always the Hudson was recently work-shopped at Sundance. Paola is part of the 2015 Emerging Writers Group at The Public Theater.

A Brooklyn-based playwright, Tony voter and Dramatists Guild Council member whose honors include the PEN Emerging Playwright, Lanford Wilson, Helen Merrill, Heideman, and Kendeda awards as well as a Lark Venturous fellowship. Alongside his wife and fellow playwright Rehana Lew Mirza, Mike holds a shared Mellon Foundation Residency at Ma-Yi Theater and Artist-in-Residence at La Jolla Playhouse. His plays include Teenage Dick, Tiger Style!, Bike America, microcrisis, and the book to the musical Bhangin’ It (with Rehana Mirza and Sam Willmott). Mike is an alumnus of Juilliard and graduated manga cum laude from Yale.

Yilong Liu is a New York-based playwright originally from Chongqing, China. He is the recipient of Kennedy Center’s Paula Vogel Playwriting Award and Paul Stephen Lim Playwriting Award. Yilong is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre's Obie Award-winning playwrights group Youngblood. He is currently under commission from the EST/ Sloan Foundation Science & Technology Project. His works include The Book of Mountains and Seas (New Conservatory Theatre Center), June is The First Fall (Kumu Kahua Theatre, Yangtze Repertory Theatre), Joker (Po’okela Award for Best New Play, Kumu Kahua Theatre, FringeNYC, National Queer Theatre), The PrEP Play (National Queer Theatre), Flood in The Valley: A Bilingual Folk Musical (Gung Ho Project). Yilong received a BA in Chinese Language and Literature from Beijing Normal University and an MFA in Playwriting from University of Hawai‘i.

Gloria Majule is a playwright from Dodoma, Tanzania presently residing in Seattle, WA. She seeks to tell stories that bring multiple black voices together from across the world, and are accessible to black audiences no matter where they are. She writes plays about Africans and the African diaspora. Gloria is an inaugural recipient of Atlantic Theater Company's Judith Champion Launch Commission, and is the 2023 winner of the Leah Prize from the Leah Ryan Fund. Her plays have been developed at Vassar's Powerhouse Theater, The New Group, Premiere Stages at Kean University, Great Plains Theater Commons, A is For, Alliance Theater, Westport Country Playhouse and Aye Defy. She graduated summa cum laude from Cornell University with a BA in Performing & Media Arts and Spanish, and holds an MFA in Playwriting from Yale School of Drama.

Aaron Mark is the creator-writer-director of Gimlet/Spotify's hit fiction podcast, The Horror of Dolores Roach, currently in development for TV with Amazon Studios and Blumhouse. Aaron has written and directed 3 one-person horror plays Off-Broadway: Empanada Loca (LAByrinth Theater Company w/ Daphne Rubin-Vega), Squeamish (All For One at Theatre Row w/ Alison Fraser), and Another Medea (All For One at the Cherry Lane and Wild Project w/ Tom Hewitt), all published by Dramatists Play Service. Other plays include Deer, also published by DPS. Favorite theater directing credits include Ben Rimalower's long-running, award-winning Patti Issues; The Mystery of Irma Vep for Berkshire Theatre Group; and Hedwig... for BC/EFA. Aaron is a NYTW Usual Suspect and a member of the WGA West and the SDC. aaronmarkwastaken.com.

A playwright, director and performer based in Glasgow, Scotland. McNair's 2017 sold-out, Fringe First award winner Letters to Morrissey is the third in a trilogy of often darkly comedic works drawing on the joys and struggles of growing up in working class Scotland.

(she/her) is a citizen of Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, Mvskoke, award-winning playwright, director, Artistic Director of Red Eagle Soaring, and co-Founder of Groundwater Arts. Works include Sections, He’eo’o (Winner of the 2019 Native Storytellers Contest), Quantum (2020 and 2021 Finalist for the National Playwrights Conference), Bound (2019 Native American New Play Festival Winner), Hamlet: El Príncipe de Denmark, Don Juan, Arbeka (Supported by First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital Fellowship), Patchwork, Oñgwehoñwe, Snag, Sugar, and OklaHOME. She is also the writer behind The Oklahoma Cycle, a seven play, interconnected cycle centered on Seminole and Mvskoke peoples in Oklahoma.
www.taramoses.com

A New York-based playwright whose honors include the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, and the Negro Ensemble Company’s Douglas Turner Ward Prize. Her play Pass Over (Steppenwolf Theatre, 2017) received a Jeff Award for outstanding New Play. Her most recent play Breach: a manifesto on race in America through the eyes of a black girl recovering from self-hate was produced by Victory Gardens this past February 2018.

A graduate of the Iowa Playwrights Workshop and a Core Writer at The Playwrights’ Center. She has been awarded the 2006 Chicano/Latino Literary Prize in Drama, the 2009 Pen Center USA Literary Award in Drama, the 2013 National Latino Playwriting Award, and is a 2019 Kendeda Finalist. Her plays have been produced by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Arizona Theatre Company, New Jersey Repertory Company, American Conservatory Theater, Stages Repertory Theatre, Halcyon Theatre, Shotgun Players, Su Teatro, and Brava Theater.

C. QUINTANA, or CQ (she/any) is a queer writer with Cuban and New Orleans roots based on Canarsee and Munsee Lenape land in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn. Plays include AZUL (Diversionary Theatre), SCISSORING (INTAR), CITIZEN SCIENTIST (Barrington Stage Company Burman New Play Award), EVENSONG (Astoria Performing Arts Center), ENTER YOUR SLEEP (Yale Cabaret), and more. CQ is the recipient of grants & fellowships from NYSCA, Café Royal Cultural Foundation, MacDowell, Playwrights Realm, Van Lier/New Voices at The Lark, CubaOne, Lambda Literary, and Queer|Art, as well as commissions from the Carthage College New Play Initiative, The Kennedy Center, The Civilians, and the Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Project. Television writing credits include ORPHAN BLACK: ECHOES (AMC) and THE BAKER AND THE BEAUTY (ABC). CQ is a proud graduate of the now defunct College of Santa Fe (RIP) and holds an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University. For more, visit cquintana.com or @cquintanatown

A writer, actor and musician. Rossmer co-wrote book, music and lyrics (with Steve Rosen) for the critically acclaimed comedy The Other Josh Cohen, which premiered Off-Broadway and was nominated for six Drama Desk Awards, the Lucille Lortel Award and the Off-Broadway Alliance Award. He also co-created the edgy, hit variety show Don’t Quit Your Night Job, which began at the Public Theater in NYC and moved to a successful run Off-Broadway.

Omer Abbas Salem is a playwright and actor. His work has been produced by Steppenwolf Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, About Face Theater, Steep Theatre, First Floor Theater, Jackalope Theater, The New Coordinates, National Queer Theater, and The Theatre School of DePaul. He is the winner of the 3Arts Award in Theater for 2022, the 2022 Cunningham Commission, the 2022 Blueprint Commission, a semi-finalist for the 2021 Amplify Commission, a member of the 2022 Goodman Playwrights Unit, the 2021 Steppenwolf Scout Development, and attended The New Harmony Project in 2023 as a writer. He is an ensemble member of Steep Theatre, Jackalope Theatre, First Floor Theater, and The New Coordinates. He is represented by Gray Talent Agency and The Gersh Agency.

Michael Shayan is an Iranian-American Jewish playwright and performer based in NY. He was a Lambda Literary Fellow in Playwriting. He has recently developed and presented work at New York Stage & Film, La MaMa, The Lark, Project Y and Dixon Place. He is currently developing a theatrical project with Susanne Bartsch. BA: Harvard College. MFA: Playwriting, Brooklyn College, under Mac Wellman and Erin Courtney. Recipient of the Himan Brown Playwriting Award. Finalist: New Dramatists. Michael was also a member and performer at The Magic Castle in Hollywood.

A current playwriting student at Juilliard. Madhuri is the 2013-2014 winner of the Kendeda Graduate Playwriting contest held by the Alliance Theatre for her play In Love and Warcraft for which they did the world premiere production. Most recently, her play Queen was produced at Victory Gardens in Chicago.

Sinfolk is an NYC-based writing team committed to elevating their music experiences with narrative journey. J’s original music and voice can be heard on network TV shows and commercials worldwide and her self-produced music videos have been viewed by millions. Gabriel Ruiz’s acting career has sent him from stage to screen to Broadway while he has written and produced podcasts and original music. They’ve made a habit of writing love songs since they started dating that has continued into their marriage. Together they combine their abilities in composition and sound design to become a genre-bending creative duo bridging the distance between stages and recording studios.

A multidisciplinary theatre-maker from Tehran, currently based in Berlin, Germany. His plays have been translated into more than 25 languages, and performed across the globe.

A playwright whose credits include but are not limited to, Oo-bla-dee (recipient of the American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award), Drowning Crow (Manhattan Theatre Club), and The Trinity River Plays (Dallas Theater Center and the Goodman Theatre). Taylor's critically acclaimed Crowns continues to be one of the most-performed musicals in the country, and is the winner of four Washington, D.C. Helen Hayes awards.

An award-winning playwright who holds a MFA in Film from Howard University, an MFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University, and most recently, an artist’s diploma in playwriting from The Julliard School. Tyler's honors include the Paul Robeson Award, and a John Golden Award for Excellence in Playwriting from NYU. His play Dolphins and Sharks received its world premiere in 2016 with the LABrynth Theatre Company, and his play Some Old Black Man will run this spring at the 59E59 Theatre.

Amanda Wilkin is a playwright, actress and jazz and blues singer-songwriter from London. In 2017 she was on the Royal Court and BBC London Writers’ Groups. After touring HAMLET to 188 countries with Shakespeare's Globe, she wrote her first play AND I DREAMT I WAS DROWNING, which was developed as part of the Talawa Firsts Festival 2018. She has since written and performed short pieces at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, THE LITTLE SOB as part of Dark Night of the Soul in early 2019, and BESSIE COLEMAN as part of Notes to the Forgotten She-Wolves in early 2020. She is writing a play about the history of protest songs and another about Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Photo courtesy of Helen Murray.

An award-winning poet, playwright, and librettist, has been produced Off-Broadway and across the US in venues including: Opera Philadelphia, Apollo Theatre, Madison Opera, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Wimberly's 2001 play Saint Lucy's Eyes starring Ruby Dee premiered at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, St. Louis Black Repertory Theatre, and The Women’s Project in New York City. Her recent play Charlie Parker's Yardbird starring Lawrence Brownlee, premiered at the Hackney Empire and the English Royal Opera in London in 2017.